Hanover COA under new leadership

While changes at the Hanover Council on Aging are inevitable, new director Tammy Murray said her main goal is to reach those seniors not taking advantage of services being offered.

Murray stepped in the role on Monday, July 24 after the retirement of Robyn Mitton, who spent 11 years in the position in Hanover and 12 years in the position in Brockton.

Murray worked in the finance world for 15 years before deciding to head back to school and is now finishing her master’s degree in social work and psychology. This lead to positions at Cardinal Cushing school and the Kingston housing authority and finally to the position as director of elder affairs in Kingston where she served for three years.

“When I started there, it was much like it is here where you have a core group of people that use the facility,” she said. “There were some, but not a lot of outside outreach. The outreach in Kingston was 14 times what it was when I started by the time I left. It was 600 percent or something crazy like that. I graduated from Hanover High School and when I saw an opening, I applied for the job.”

Besides the desire to head back to her home town, she credits the town manager form of government that Hanover has as far more workable and easier to navigate versus the town administrator form of government that Kingston.

In her short time as the director, she already feels as though she is on the same page with the council’s staff and the center’s regular attendees with the strong desire to expand the scope of the center.

“As much as centers are good at serving the people that come to the center, there is a whole population outside of these walls that either doesn’t know it’s here or don’t know what we offer,” she said. “The focus for me with my social worker background is reaching the unreachable. Through newspapers, radio, TV, social media, just whatever I can to get the message out that we exist.”

She estimates that over 1,200 Hanover residents are over the age of 60 and do not take advantage of the senior center in any way. She breaks down the age demographics of the seniors into three groups, 80-and-above, 67-to-79 and baby boomers that are from 60-to-66.

There are strong distinctions between the groups, as she finds the youngest group is very well-versed in technology and enjoys musical performances.

“They want different things that are not normally here,” she said. “Back in Kingston, we had many night events and I plan to do that here as well. We had author series, we had history series, musical guests and just everything we could think of we tried. There’s a misconception that all seniors go to bed at 6 p.m., which isn’t necessarily true. We do have volunteer drivers for those who don’t like driving at night.”